Our vet advised us against buying insurance. He said that in his experience, the policies tend to exclude a given dog breed's common maladies. So, for example, if your German Shepard ever got hip displasia, it wouldn't be covered.

We had Buster, the GSD, for 13 years and over the course of that time his vet treatments cost a fair amount in addition to normal stuff

* Root canal (he broke a fang chewing a rock)

* 2x surgery for ACLs in both hind legs

* surgery to remove carcinoma on his jaw

* prednisone shots for arthritis

That probably comes to something around $10K over those 13 years. But really, it's not that different from what we'd have been paying in premiums anyway.